Friday’s Featured Sermon: “Two Paths, One Way” — “Hell has many residents who formerly professed faith in Christ. They didn’t “lose their salvation” because that’s biblically impossible (John 10:27–29). They are people who claimed to know Jesus, only to find out that Jesus didn’t know them.”

Isaiah’s Sixfold Depiction of God’s Glory — “What kind of God does the prophet proclaim in Isaiah 42:18– 43:21? What must God be like if He promises to restore and renew despite the abject failure of His people?”

Three Types of People Who Help the Church — In this series of “Three Types”—I continue by looking at three types of people who help the church. We would do well to appreciate these people and to pray for them in the life of our local church.

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“A Response to Andy Stanley: Jesus and the Old Testament, What God has joined together, let not man separate”

I don’t know much about Andy Stanley; just that he’s the son of Charles.

But what he said about the Law of Moses and its relationship to the Christian was *EXCELLENT*.

Heb 8:13, 9:9-10, John 1:17, Luke 16:16

The moral guide for the Christian is the NT canon, not the Law and the Prophets. We learn of our Savior from the types and shadows in the Old Testament, but we are bound to obey only the apostolic word, the NT revelation.

The third use of the Torah in Reformed circles is more akin to Paul’s opponents, the Judaizers, than to what the great apostle himself preached.

What is the basis in the Scriptures for dividing the Torah into moral, ceremonial and civil aspects?

If the Law of Moses is one, unified covenant document, then Stanley is certainly right that Christians are not under the Ten Commandments.

Heb 8:13, 9:9-10, Rom 7:6, 2 Cor 3:1-10

The Christian conscience is bound, not by the Mosaic Law, but by the apostolic word (the NT revelation), where nine of the Ten Commandments are “reissued” for the New Covenant.

Everything here hangs on what Paul means by “nomos” in Romans and Galatians. If Paul means the Torah in its entirety, then Stanley is right on the Christian’s relationship to the Mosaic Law and the Reformed are wrong.

Again, I ask: what is the basis in Scripture for dividing the Law of God, the Torah given to Israel by way of Covenant, into various moral, ceremonial and civil aspects? Did the Jews think of the Law in that way? Did Paul know about these neat divisions that the Reformed assume and build their theology upon? When Paul wrote “nomos” in Rom & Gal, was he thinking of the Torah covenant made with the Jews in redemptive history or was he thinking of some “moral law” that could somehow be excerpted from the Torah? A very great deal depends upon how you answer these questions.

Disclaimer: please don’t read this as a defense of Andy Stanley’s ministry. I’ve never watched or heard a sermon of his until this weekend. He seems intent upon taking down as many barriers to faith as he can, whereas Paul was only concerned to take down the barrier of the Mosaic Law and Covenant. I thought the Biblical theology of Stanley’s sermon was very good, but he -might- be deploying it to nefarious ends.

Lastly, this statement was not accurate:

“Conveniently, for his argument, Stanley does not point out that James grounds the council’s pronouncement in the Old Testament text of Amos 9:11-12.”

I distinctly remember Stanley saying something exactly to that point. He put something like the following words into the apostle James’ mouth, “We should have known this was coming. Our very own prophets told us this was going to happen.” So Stanley actually made a good effort to do what you say he conveniently neglected.

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Delivered By Grace is a theology blog that focuses on theology, SBC, preaching, the church, and many issues within the Christian life. Delivered By Grace is edited by Josh Buice and contributed to by various other preachers and writers. Unless otherwise noted, articles are written by Josh Buice.

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